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 Delivery Trucks Ticketed in Mobile
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| By : Roy_Pope on 14 Feb 2008 at 03:59:27 pm
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Recently, several drivers of delivery vehicles have come to me with complaints that they are being ticketed by the police when the park in no-parking zones for the purpose of making deliveries to businesses. The only reason they park in these no-parking zones is because there aren't any parking areas available to them to park in due to people parking streetside all day while they are at work downtown.
I met with Lt. Hodges with the Central Events Police Precinct an hour ago and let him know what was going on. He's really a great guy, very easy to talk to, and he understands clearly the delimma with parking downtown.
Lt. Hodges assured me that it is not the policy of the police to write tickets to vehicles illegally parked for the purpose of making business deliveries. He asked me to pass along the message that once a ticket has been written, the officer writing the ticket cannot cancel the ticket. If you are making a business delivery and get a ticket, Lt. Hodges has asked that you take the ticket directly to him at the Central Events Precinct and the matter will be taken care of.
I know this may seem a bit of a nuisance, to have to go to the precinct over a ticket, but it's sure a lot cheaper than having to pay the ticket. And, at least the police are trying to work with us on the issue. After all, they understand that businesses cannot run downtown if we do not get our needed supplies - and that affects everyone. |
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Category : News and Opinion
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Mardi Gras Upside-down
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| By : Roy_Pope on 06 Feb 2008 at 07:54:19 pm
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As a Mobile resident since 1972, I have experienced quite a few Mardi Gras celebrations in my time. As a downtown merchant since 2001, I have had the opportunity to experience Mardi Gras up close and personal every year for the past seven years. In all this time celebrating and participating in the Mardi Gras festivities, I have never been so ashamed of Mobile as I was this season.
Weak turnout for Mardi Gras
For starters, the turnout of people celebrating Mardi Gras in downtown Mobile was extremely weak. Whereas there would normally have been a congregation of parade-goers on Joe Cain Day and Fat Tuesday pressed body-to-body, extending from the barracade at Dauphin and Conception Streets back a hundred feet, the mass of people barely extended from the barracade by thirty feet this year - and that was even with the city's new police observation tower occupying 90% of the road where people would have normally been standing (more on that later).
Why such a weak turnout? Well, Madi Gras started quite early this year. Joe Cain Day celebrations coincided with the Super Bowl, and Fat Tuesday celebrations conflicted with the people's civic duty as voters in the presidential primaries. I can only speculate, but the positioning of the police observation tower at the intersection of Dauphin and Conception Streets may have had a negative impact on the turnout in the immediate business area as well, considering that it took away from the areas where people would have normally stood to catch throws from the paraders.
"No Glass" law definitely not enforced
There is a relatively new business within our downtown business community called 'The Pint'. It is a liquor store located at 201 Dauphin Street. From this liquor store, parade-goers were being permitted to purchase alcoholic beverages in glass containers which they then carried out into the streets (violating Mobile Municipal Code Section 39-202 Opened glass containers in public places during Mardi Gras).
"Sec. 39-202. Opened glass containers in public places during Mardi Gras.
(a) Definitions.
(1) For the purpose of this section, the period observed as Mardi Gras shall run from 12:01 a.m. on the fourteenth day prior to Ash Wednesday to 6:00 a.m. on Ash Wednesday.
(2) For the purposes of this section, an "opened glass" container is defined as:
a. Any drinking vessel made of glass excluding wrapped or packaged drinking glasses or cups which are merely being transported from one place to another; or
b. Any container made of glass upon which the seal has been broken.
(3) For the purposes of this section, "public" shall be defined as an area open to all, maintained by or for the people at large.
(b) Carrying or drinking from. It shall be unlawful for any person to carry or drink from any opened glass container in public in the city during the period observed as Mardi Gras.
(c) Owner's responsibility. It shall be unlawful for owners or employees of establishments which sell beverages in glass containers in the city knowingly to allow any person to leave the premises of the establishment carrying an opened glass container.
(Ord. No. 41-088, section 1--5, 10-4-83)
Cross references: Litter, section 25-31 et seq.; intoxicating liquor, Ch. 30."
The owner of the liquor store was even so bold as to place beverages in glass bottles in his beer tub, which was positioned in the middle of the sidewalk (Violating Alabama ABC regulations).
Here's the real kicker: Police officers were standing right next to The Pint's beer tub watching people purchase beverages in glass containers and carry them back into the crowds. They did absolutely nothing about it either!
I wonder why such a law even exists? It could be because glass containers were being broken in the streets and on the sidewalks where people were walking and falling down. It could be because broken glass in such a large crowd of people makes for a very dangerous situation in which major arteries could be sliced and people could be seriously injured or killed.
But all of that's okay. If someone got seriously injured by stepping or falling down on broken glass, there were paramedics close by to render first aid and transport victims to the hospital if necessary. They would only need to find a means for navigating their emergency vehicles around the police observation tower that was blocking the road (more on that later).
Public Nudity
The owner of the tattoo parlor 'Demented Needle', who is a friend of mine, employed radio station TK101 to do a live remote broadcast from their balcony on Fat Tuesday. The objective - get people to congregate in front of his business between parades.
Paul's idea worked - but quickly became another embarrassment to our community and Mardi Gras in Mobile. The TK101 employees spent more than an hour on Demented Needle's balcony shouting through a speaker system for women to show their breasts in exchange for beads. "You show, we throw" was his favorite chant to the masses of women standing in the crowds with their husbands and children.
I counted dozens of children standing in the crowd that formed. I also witnessed dozens of women raising their shirts (and a few drunken men) to show their breasts. There was even one young girl - she couldn't have been more than ten years old - who raised her shirt like the women around her were doing, though she didn't seem to know why she was showing her chest in public to perfect strangers.
My restaurant is a family restaurant, where people with dignity, morals and respect bring their families to dine. Yes, my customers came this Fat Tuesday as they always have, but they left with a foul taste in their mouths - not from the food that they ate, but from the shameless behavior of the people they had to endure seeing through my restaurant's plate-glass window.
Yes, eventually the police stepped in and put a stop to the lewd behavior that was taking place, but more than an hour had passed and many breasts were shown before they did so. What did they do before then? Two black police officers stood in the back of a white pickup truck which was backed up to the police observation tower. They faced away from the lewd activities, turning only briefly from time to time to take a look when shouts for bare breasts went out from TK101. I cannot say what the officers in the observation tower were doing in regards to this because they stand watch behind tinted windows (more on that coming up next).
The Mobile Police Department's Observation Tower
It's a monstrosity!
The City of Mobile has gone and spent $91,000 dollars of taxpayer's money on a giant mobile tower for officers to sit in and observe the people during festivities such as Mardi Gras. The tower lifts the officers twenty-or-thirty feet into the air where they sit in comfort behind tinted glass, looking out over the masses of people.
My understanding is that their job is to notify officers on the ground whenever they observe dangerous or illegal activities taking place. The officers on the ground are then supposed to be able to respond in a more efficient manner.
At some time during the last parade of the season, between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm, Corporal Tolin (who was in the observation tower) witnessed a drunken man break the window to one of my businesses at 201-B Dauphin Street. The incident took place no further than twenty-five feet from the observation tower. However, there were absolutely no police officers on the ground to respond when Corporal Tolin called the incident in (I can't recall seeing any officers on the ground at all during the last parade). The result of having no officers in the area to respond to calls from the tower was that the person who broke my window was not arrested. Since he was not arrested, I cannot have him compelled by a court to pay for the damages that he wrought on my business, so either me or my insurance company is going to have to pay (and my insurance premiums will most likely go up).
What's the sense in having police officers monitoring masses of people if they are placed in towers where they cannot respond when things go wrong? In my personal opinion, the purchase and use of this observation tower was nothing more than a publicity stunt for the City of Mobile and a complete and blatant waste of taxpayer money.
After I shut down my restaurant and boarded up my broken window at the office next door, my family and I climbed into my van to go home. My van was parked on Dauphin Street in front of my restaurant, and we were all extremely tired from being at work since 7:00 am that morning. We were ready to leave, but we couldn't. That damned monstrosity was blocking the road, so we were stuck downtown until the police lowered and moved the observation tower, just as many other business owners and parade-goers were stuck.
Is Mobile's Mayor Jones Trying To Kill Mardi Gras?
I cannot figure out what Mayor Sam Jones is trying to do. It appears that he is putting forth extra efforts to kill Mardi Gras in downtown Mobile. I'll tell you why I think this.
It has been a tradition for as long as I can remember for people to gather in the middle of Dauphin Street catching throws from business balconies after the last parade on Joe Cain Day. This year, nearly a dozen police vehicles sped through the streets downtown, circling the blocks over and over again with their lights flashing and their sirens blaring. Their objective, from what one police officer told me, was to drive the people off the streets. Their objective was to put ruin to the celebration and to stifle business along Dauphin Street.
I'm surprised that someone didn't get run over by those police officers. They were driving at speeds through the business district way in excess of the posted 25 mph speed limit, never slowing down as they made their turns in front of my business. I know that I counted them rounding the blocks and passing my establishment at least 15 times before I gave up and closed shop.
Then, there is Mayor Jones' tampering with the way we celebrate with the Joe Cain parade. Traditionally, parade-goers have always been allowed to fall in and walk behind the parade. Traditionally, we have been allowed to walk our dogs on leashes in the parade, and to pull our children along in wagons.
This year, Mayor Jones had decided to break with tradition. Nobody was allowed to join in the parade unless they paid to do so. Nobody was allowed to walk their dogs in the parade, and all wheeled objects such as bicycles and wagons were strictly forbidden.
It made for a really crappy Joe Cain parade. Tourists who visited my restaurant spoke with me, saying that they came to Mobile every year and participated in the Joe Cain parade every year. They were surprised to learn that they would not be able to participate this year, and commented that they would never return to Mardi Gras again.
THANKS FOR SCREWING IT ALL UP MAYOR JONES! |
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Category : News and Opinion
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